Set in the mid 80s while Chile was still in the grip of those nasty dictators, this is one of those allegorical Latin American movies which should come equipped with a cultural reference guide. Themes like powerlessness, adaptability and identity frequently bob to the surface but its an effort to discover quite where the heart of this award wining film lies.
Ramiro (Contreras), an ideological teacher, is banished to an exceptionally soggy part of the country for signing a petition against the abduction of a colleague. In this remote location, entirely peopled with eccentrics, he is met by a Laurel and Hardy team of petty bureaucrats who think hes a terrorist and make him sign in a book at all hours of the day and night.
And soon he falls for the pretty Maite (Laso), whose exiled republican father packs a bag each day and in his befuddled mind returns home to Spain, and starts work as the assistant to a strange individual in an antique divers suit whos looking for the cause of a tidal wave which once engulfed the village. All the while his own motivations and past are scantily sketched in, the emphasis being put on Ramiros gradual acclimatisation he gets ill, gets drunk, gets his leg over and misses his son, while looking glazed and confused throughout.
Debut director Larrain handles the deep and meaningful angle of his film with strong symbolic focus on the water theres walls of the stuff that is always threatening to flood in again and displays a deft sense of the absurd. But, despite the extraordinary wild scenery and unhistrionic performances, the movie tends to get bogged down in its melancholy mood becoming rather cheerless and dull.